Barnes & Noble lights up e-reader screen

2012-04-13 11:03

New York - Barnes & Noble says it's tackling one of the shortcomings of black-and-white e-readers, by creating a screen that can be read in the dark.

E-readers with black-and-white screens, made by Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Sony and others, are easily readable in bright light but don't come with their own light sources. The ones with colour screens, such as the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, do have built-in lights but are hardly legible in sunlight.

The new "Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight" has a standard black-and-white screen, but an array of light-emitting diodes inside the frame spreads a glow over the page with the help of an invisible light-guiding layer.

Barnes & Noble says the model will be in stores early next month and cost $139.